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Sunday, September 25, 2011

It was understandable that Devils coach Pete DeBoer was not pleased with the way most of his players played in a 6-2 preseason loss to the Islanders tonight at Nassau Coliseum.

It was a sloppy effort from start to finish, marred by poor passing and turnovers that led to repeated counterattack chances for the Islanders.

“Disappointed in the game and how we played,” DeBoer said. “The good news is it’s exhibition and we’ve got a lot of time to fix what’s wrong, but obviously you never like to stand behind the bench and watch that.”

DeBoer said he thought the numerous odd-man rushes against tonight were the result of, “Some guys trying to do too much in order to make an impression. We’ve stressed from Day 1 here that it’s not going to be individual plays that are going to get you on the team. It’s going to be your ability to fit in and team play. Some guys get that message and some guys don’t.”

When asked if he was happy with the play of any of his players, DeBoer responded, “I thought Nick Palmieri had a good game. I thought he was real effective for us. I thought Mark Fraser had a real good game on defense. I thought he did a good job.”

Palmieri, who scored a goal in the first period, is the only Devil to have played in all three of the team’s preseason games so far and put forth his best effort so far.

“I just thought he had good jump,” DeBoer said. “Out of three games he’s played, I thought tonight he was involved, he was physical, he was on the puck. He was around the front of the net. It’s not the fact that he scored a goal. That wasn’t the only reason. He played with a lot of jump and we didn’t have a lot of guys up front that had jump.”

DeBoer was looking for Palmieri to be more involved tonight than in his first two games. Palmieri said no one said anything to him about the way he played in the first two games, but he knew he had to play better.

“They never expressed it to me, but they didn’t have to,” Palmieri said. “I can look at the score sheet and see zero shots in two games and that’s enough motivation for me. Especially if I’m in a role where I’m a top-two-line guy, you have to create offense. In the first two games, I didn’t think I played poorly, but I didn’t think I did the things I needed to do to create offense.”

Palmieri, who stuffed home a failed wraparound try by Adam Henrique (who did not get an assist for some reason) on his goal, had two shots on goal tonight in 11:51 of ice time, playing mostly with Henrique and Mattias Tedenby. He said he was not surprised that he’s played in all three games so far.

“I think the best way to get into game shape is to play in games, so I don’t look at it as a bad thing whatsoever,” he said. “I think the more games I can play in before the regular season the better off I’ll be. I’ve felt progressively better as the games have gone one. The first game was a little bit of an adjustment.”

Palmieri, 22, had a solid second half as a rookie last season, putting up nine goals and eight assists in 43 games. He knows he’s not guaranteed a job on the roster, however, just because he did some good things last season.

“I feel like you have to win a job every year,” he said. “I don’t think it changes year to year. They’re bringing guys in, guys are getting drafted, so there’s always people fighting for a spot on the team. I just go out and play my game and, hopefully, do the things that they’re looking for to earn a spot.”

***Other topics that DeBoer discussed postgame:

On Zach Parise being healthy: “He’s working his way back in, but he’s 100 percent healthy. We know it’s going to take some time, but I’m not worried about Zach.”

On the team learning his system: “I think so. On night’s like this, nothing look good tonight, so I’m not sure it’s a fair barometer. We’ve done some good things over the first three games. It’s been an evaluation/getting the guys’ legs back. Now, we can start I think working more with the group you’re going to see opening night. That’s going to be the plan this week.

On whether the PK bothered him (Isles were 3-for-6 on the PP): “A lot of things bothered me. That was one of them.”

On the how many young players he thinks will make opening night roster: “We haven’t gotten to that point yet. Opening day is still a ways away and we’ve got a lot of work to do and there’s still a lot of decisions to be made.”

On whether some players were tired from playing Friday night: “I don’t think that’s an excuse. The Islanders played last night too. We had some guys that didn’t play in the game last night, but were fresh. So, that’s not an excuse.”

About

TOM GULITTI has covered the New Jersey Devils for The Record since 2002. Prior to that, he covered the New York Rangers for four years. Gulitti joined The Record in 1998 after six years at The North Jersey Herald News. He graduated from Binghamton University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Rhetoric-Literature.